Friday, October 16, 2009

Mail nailed

The Daily Mail published an article by columnist Jan Moir, which no doubt the Mail's editorial team felt reflected the views of its readership. Tasteless, vile and homophobic, the Mail and Moir are facing outrage and condemnation. And rightly so.

I'm barely aware of Gately's existence, so beyond the little empathy borne from simple common decency I find it difficult to really care. But the Daily Mail has taken advantage of this man's untimely death, and used the fact that he was gay, spiced it up with some moralising bullshit to imply impropriety - all in an attempt to normalise naked homophobia.

That the Mail's editorial team thought such shit is suitable for publication almost says as much about its readership as it does about the value of its moral framework. Zero.

The medical science clearly points to death by ‘natural causes’. Yet Moir states “Whatever the cause of death is, it is not, by any yardstick, a natural one.” The Daily Mail getting involved in mad conspiracy theories; who’d have thought it.